Demirli – Menekşe Kayalar

Façade and Niche
It is a small façade carved on a pointy rock, 200 m northeast of the Menekşe Kayalar (Violet Rocks), 500 m south of Demirli village of İhsaniye district of Afyonkarahisar. It was discovered by T. Tüfekçi-Sivas in 1995. The façade is built on the northeastern face of the rock and is quite weathered. Only its contours are visible.
About 100 m southeast of this façade, there is a rectangular-shaped niche carved on a rock wall. A simple gable is incised above the niche. On the roughly flat top of this rock block, there is a large hole with an overflow channel that directs just above the niche. Nearby, there are further rock-cut hollows with overflow channels.

Altars in Menekşe Kayalar
There are four altars found on Menekşe Kayalar, 500 m south of Demirli village. All of the altars are on the eastern slope. Three of them are grouped side by side and face the east direction. The fourth altar faces south. There is a 3-line Old Phrygian inscription (W‑11) on the Altar 2.

Altar 1

Altars 2, 3 & 4

Demirli Kale
It is a Phrygian fortress built on a natural rocky elevation near Demirli village of İhsaniye district. It was used as a settlement in the Byzantine period.




References:
Berndt, D. 2019. ‘Midas City in Phrygia: Small Horizontal Reliefs Between Idols and Step Monuments’, in Phrygia in Antiquity: From the Bronze Age to the Byzantine Period, ed. G. R. Tsetskhladze, Colloquia Antiqua 24, 501-524.
Berndt-Ersöz, S. 2006. Phrygian Rock–Cut Shrines. Structure, Function and Cult Practice, Leiden.
Haspels, C. H. E. 1971. The Highlands of Phrygia. Sites and Monuments, Princeton.
Tüfekçi-Sivas, T. 1999. Eskişehir-Afyonkarahisar- Kütahya İl Sınırları İçindeki Phryg Kaya Anıtları, Anadolu Üniversitesi Yayınları No:1156, Eskişehir.
Tüfekçi-Sivas, T. 2005. ‘Phrygian Rock-Cut Monuments from Western Phrygia, with Observations on their Cult Functions’, in Anatolian Iron Ages 5. Proceedings of the fifth Anatolian Iron Ages colloquium held at Van, 6–19 August 2001, eds. A. Çilingiroğlu & G. Darbyshire, 217–226.
Tüfekçi-Sivas, T. & H. Sivas. 2009. Frig Vadileri (Frigler’den Türk Dönemine Uzanan Miras), T. C. Eskişehir Valiliği, Eskişehir.

Image sources:
C. H. E. Haspels, 1971
T. Tüfekçi-Sivas, 2005
S. Berndt-Ersöz, 2006
T. Tüfekçi-Sivas & H. Sivas, 2009
D. Berndt, 2019
Ertuğrul Anıl, 2020
Bora Bilgin, 2020
Reha Özer, 2020